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(10/04/2011) - We were all told this, but I didnʼt fully understand it until I experienced it: Monday nights on Battle of the Blades are terrible. Absolutely brutal. Monday nights are the results show, on which the teams with the lowest combined (judges and audience) votes "skate off." Only one team stays.

I still have a pit in my stomach thinking about it.

Maybe because it was our first results show, it all seemed to happen in a blur -- a very confusing blur. I couldnʼt really hear what the host was saying, but I vaguely knew I had to stand in a specific light at a specific time. And probably with the exception of two teams, all of us thought we might leaving the show at any moment.

Of course, no one wants to leave. First and foremost, everyone is incredibly invested in their choice charity, and the longer you stay on the show, the more money you raise for your charity.

Second, we have become a family.

I have found myself saying this a lot, and I donʼt know if it is even anatomically possible, for I am no doctor, but here I go: I now have a soft spot in my heart for hockey players.

I know, I know, we figure skaters are not supposed to even acknowledge a hockey player, let alone like one. But I have met nine, and they have made me change my tune.

What a surprise. I have found some of the nicest, most compassionate people in a bunch of hockey players.

And they are such hard workers, even -- no, especially -- when it comes to figure skating. I am going to get in major trouble for repeating this, but they have all admitted to secretly practicing their skating routines in their rooms, in the gym, in the shower and in their sleep. How can you not love that?

Meeting all these people and being so taken aback by their kindness has to be one of the highlights of this experience. And because of the circumstances leading into the show's opening, I have to imagine that we have a bond now that no other cast has had before.

We have leaned on each other in a way I never imagined -- and honestly donʼt know would be possible -- with a different group of "figure skaters." Yes, all you guys and Tessa, you are all now figure skaters.

And more.

Marcy (Hinzmann-Harris) said it best: "We have made lifelong friends."

So, the show continues, with fewer of our Battle of the Blades family intact. That is the television show part of it.

But then there still stands the bigger, life side of it, the side Marcy pointed to. And try as it might, no terrible Monday night elimination can change that.